The Horrifying Adventures of Hey Arnold!
by J.Staude
Summary: When a person from our world suddenly finds themselves in another world, how will they survive? With new friends and enemies around every corner, will Max be able to find his way back home, or will he be trapped forever in this new world, or does another fate awaits for Max? Find out and more in The Horrifying Adventures of Hey Arnold!
1. A New Day

**A/N: I do not own Hey Arnold!, all rights go to Nickelodeon and Craig Barlett. **

Moonlight shined through Max's bedroom window, being the only source of light other than his laptop's screen,

barely keeping him up, all so he can finish his English 9 book report on time.

Frustration began to creep in when he saw on his laptop that it was near midnight, and he was barely halfway done yet. At this point he would've loved to say 'screw it', and go to sleep, he could sacrifice a few points on his assignment, and it wouldn't be that big of a loss.

But no matter how much he wanted to act on these desires, he kept reminding himself that he really can't afford to sacrifice a few simple points, since he really doesn't have the best grade in that class, or really any class, for that matter, and with final exams coming up, he's going to need all the points he can get.

With his patience waning, and tiredness starting to settle in, he started to get angry at himself for getting himself in the situation he was in. "Another great decision made by Maxwell Helliton, spending all day watching an old cartoon show, instead of working on his homework that's due the next day, forcing him to try to get all done the night before, what a great decision there Maxie", he said rather sarcastically, and mockingly to himself.

His thoughts started to wander to that very same cartoon he watched pretty much all day. He found some old DVD sets in the basement a few days ago, his mother said that Mark, his older brother, used to watch the show a lot when it first came out in the late 90s. Which surprised him, since, from what his mother and even his own brother said, at the time he was obsessed with being 'cool', and for Mark, cartoons weren't 'cool' enough for him at the time, so what made this cartoon 'cooler' than other cartoons at the time.

He tried to forget about them, knowing that he had a lot of homework to do, but eventually, his curiosity won out against his better judgment, and started watching the old cartoon show, called 'Hey Arnold!'.

The only thing he knew about the cartoon before watching it, was that a movie called the Jungle Movie, very original name right there, came out two years, but other than that, he was going in completely blind. At first he thought the show was good, but not that great, after episode 6 of season one, he was tempted to just get back to working on some schoolwork, but he decided to watch a few more episodes, and by then he was hooked, especially when he got around to season 2, when the show especially got good, so good in fact, that he spent six more hours watching it, until he got up to season 4, and promptly realized it was nine a clock, and realized he messed up big time.

He shook his head, he has no time to think about that show, it's almost midnight, and he is barely halfway done. He continued working, battling the tiredness inside of him, which kept growing and growing, making it harder to keep his eyes open, but he was determined to get this done tonight, even if he has to force himself to finish it.

His eyes grew weaker, his fingers getting slower, his mind slowly getting slower, and his thought process getting more jumbled, but he was still working, he couldn't quit now, but his body, and something else, had different plans for him.

The world started to get darker, the computer screen and the moonlight seemed to dim, at first he was confused about what was going on, but then he realized that he was about to fall asleep "No I-I can't fall asleep yet, still have more work to do" and with that, his head fell down on his pillow, and he quickly fell asleep, unaware of the figure in the corner of his room, with a big, bloody grin on its face.

Max's eyes slowly started to open from his long sleep, and the first thing he noticed was the morning sun up in the sky, the second thing he saw was the ceiling, or more specifically, the lack of a ceiling. The third thing he noticed was that his bed felt very stiffer and uncomfortable from the last time he used it, and the only reason why he was not currently freaking out, was the fact that he was still mostly asleep, which didn't last much longer.

Max felt small cold drops of water go down his fair-skinned cheek, making him restless, and making his brain slowly realize that this isn't his bed, this isn't his home, and he is very cold, and after a few seconds, he was fully awake, and promptly went into a panic.

He quickly sat up and realized that he wasn't in his home, but in what looks like a park. "WHERE THE HELL AM I" he shouted with panic in his voice, he looked down at himself, and realized he wasn't wearing his pajamas, but a clear, white T-shirt, an open, short sleeve, blue plaid shirt, some blue jeans, and some simple, brown shoes.

He quickly sat up from the bench he was sleeping on. 'What the fuck happened? Did I somehow sleepwalk all the way here, was I kidnapped, but then why would they leave me in a public park, and if they did, does that mean', his face went pale, as he looked down at his blue jeans, but he quickly shook himself out of it, he really didn't want to think about that right now.

He started to take some deep breaths, trying to calm himself down, and to think clearly, 'Okay, so you're not in your house, you don't know where you are, but that fine, that's okay, I'm sure there is a phone that I can borrow from someone and call my parents. They can pick me up, and then we can notify the cops, and find out who did this to me' he thought to himself, and with that plan in mind, he traveled down the gravel path to the right, to find a phone.

If it weren't for the fact that he didn't know where the hell he was, this would've been pretty peaceful, with the beautiful flowers, the soft sounds of the sprinkler watering them for the day, and the only sound being the soft, cool, wind.

It felt like ages, but he finally saw another person in the distance, sitting on a park bench, feeding the birds, he looked like a rather old man, but he didn't care, all that matters is whether or not he had a phone he could borrow. He quickly went up to the bench, not wanting to scare the birds and all, when the old man noticed his approach, and looked down at him, with his warm, kindly old smile.

"Ah, hello there sunny, shouldn't you be in school, school is important you know, especially for a kiddy like you, ha ha ha"...Max didn't get the joke, but that wasn't important right now, "Well, I have the day off, and I was wondering if you had a cell phone I could borrow, to call my parents" he asked politely, but the old man looked at him confused "...What's a cell phone" '...You gotta be kidding me, the first person I find, somehow doesn't even know what a goddamn cell phone is, how does someone not know what a CELL PHONE IS in this day and age' he thought bitterly, and angrily to himself.

"You know, a cell phone, you carry it in your pocket, and it allows you to talk to anyone in the world, as long as you have there number, and you can play games on it, and access the internet on it" "hmmm" the old man scratched his chin "well I do know what a phone is, but I never heard of a phone that can connect to the internet, or a phone that you can play games on, ha ha ha, uh, you kids these days, always have time to imagine, but not for learning,ho ho ho" the old man laughed.

Now it was time for Max to be confused "The cell phone already exists, and some of them are even called smartphones, and those phones can do all of that and much more, and I'm not a kid, I'm a teenager" "Nope, those smartphone things don't exist, maybe you need to stop watching so many cartoons young one, ho ho ho" Max's eyes were twitching rather angrily at this point " And you are a kid, while some kids just want to grow up as fast as they can, to drive cars, go to rated R movies, and all that other stuff, you enjoy being, what, 8 or 9 years by the look of you, besides, I might be old, but even I can tell you're a kid, and if you are a teenager, well, your the shortest teenager I have ever seen, ho ho ho".

He was about to retort before he noticed that he did seem shorter than before, and now while he was thinking about, the old man does seem to be taller than him and that his voice did seem to be squeakier before he woke up. 'But how would that be possible, a person just doesn't suddenly become younger all of a sudden, maybe I'm just imagining things' "hey, is there a pond somewhere close by" he asked the old man "Not that I know of, there is one not far behind me" "Great, I will be back in a moment, I, uh, just got to look at something quick", and with that, he ran to the pond, hoping this day could not get any weirder than it already was, unfortunately, those hopes were dashed, when his reflection in the pond, and he looked exactly like his nine-year-old self, and he was barely able to hold in his scream.

'No, no, this can't possibly be happening, w-what the hell is going on' Max slowly started to back up from the pond 'th-this is impossible, someone can't just digress in age' shouted in his head, he kept backing up until he hit a tree. He slid down, until he was sitting on the ground, with his hands on his face, trying his hardest to calm himself down, 'its okay, its okay, this fine, this fine, this is not fine, this not fine , what the HELL is going on, first I wake in some random park, then I realize that someone changed my clothes, and the first person I meet, doesn't even know what a cellphone is, and now I am somehow looking like a nine-year-old', he screamed in his head

At this point he was starting to hyperventilate, so far he tied to count to 10, use his 5 senses skill, and respiratory, but none of them have worked so far, all he could do now is try to talk to himself to calm himself down. "Just focus on the phone, just focus on the phone, just deal with the other shit later, just call your parents, just think about that," he said to himself. With those words in his head, he slowly got to his feet, and walked back to the old man, ignoring his new age all throughout the walk.

The old man looked behind his bench and saw the young man walking back towards, with a determined look on his face. " Hello, again sir, I was wondering where the nearest phone is, and I would be extremely grateful if you did, sir" Max said, rather awkwardly, and very forcefully. The old man stared at him, once again rather confused by this strange kid, but decided to just give him the answer he seeks, "There's a pay phone near the entrance of the park, all you have to do is just continue to walk towards your right, and then you will see it" Max nodded his head "Thank you sir, I will now be on my way", and with that, Max walked away from the old man, trying his best to only think about calling his parents, and not his other current predicament.

When he got to the pay phone, which he didn't even know that they still existed, he noticed that the streets, except for a few cars going by, was mostly empty. Luckily, Max noticed that he had some spare change in his pocket, which he put into the phone, and started dialing his house's landline. The phone rang for several seconds, with Max getting more nervous after each ring, and then, it answered.

"Hello, who is this" said the other person on the line, who was definitely not someone that Max knew. "Uh, this is Maxwell Helltion, can I speak to my mother, Susan Helltion" he asked very nervously, hoping that maybe it was one of his mother's friend that he has never met before. "I'm sorry, but could you say that again, I didn't quite hear you" she asked rather politely, which didn't help Max's rising blood pressure, "is Susan Hellition, or Steve Hellition there, and if so, can I please speak to them, as I am their son, and need to talk to them right away, please" he asked, rather professional, to keep the nervousness out of his voice.

"Sorry, but I never even heard of them," she said once again, rather politely, and also once again that didn't help Max going deathly white. "Hello, hello, are you still there" the women asked, but he didn't answer, and without another word, he hung up, and began walking mindlessly, without even caring where he would end up.

His mind was blank, not thinking about anything, just mindless walking down a sidewalk, and currently unaware of his own surroundings as he walked. But his mind suddenly jolted back to life as he landed on the ground on his butt, which was aching, but what caught his immdentatn intention, was a rather old, bony man, laying on the ground just about three feet away from him. Immediately, Max jumped up from the ground, and helped the old man get back on his feet, "I am so, so sorry, I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings, and once again I am so sorry that bumped into you, are you okay, please tell me you are okay" Max kept talking, and talking, reptedial saying sorry for several seconds, with the old man just staring at him all throughout.

"Hey, hey, kiddo I'm fine" he said resuancerianly. He then started to chuckle, "listen, I have experienced much worse falls in my life, and good old Steely Phil now has the skeleton of a crocodile, or was it a wolverine, hmmm,ah, well my main point is that it was an accident, and other then a bump on my tushie, I am feeling just fine kiddo, so don't worry your little head off", he said once again resuancerianly.

Max sighed in relief that the old man was okay, but that relief quickly ended, 'wait a minute, did he just called himself Steely Phil', a chill went up his spine. So far he hasn't really gotten a good look at the old man, so with all his might, he finally got a good look at the old man's face, and it confirmed his theory that he wasn't on planet Earth anymore, or rather, on his planet Earth, as the face that was staring back at him, was Grandpa Phil.

"Hey, uh, kiddo, are you feeling alright, you look a little pale" asked Phil, and he is very correct, as Max is justifiably very pale, after realizing that he is now in the cartoon show Hey Arnold!. "Yeah I'm, uh, very, very fine, in fact, I'm feeling better than ever, so better, in fact, that im now going to take a jog around the city, so bye Phil".

He ran as fast as he can away from the now reel cartoon character, "HEY, SHOULDN'T YOU BE IN SCHOOLl" Phil realized, but Max didn't pay attention, "kids these days, think they can just do whatever they want" Phil mumbled to himself, and started walking back to Sunset Arms.

'Okay Max, everythings going to be okay, everything is going to be okay', those words kept repeating inside his brain, so he won't suffer a mental breakdown, all the while pacing in a random alleyway he found, to attract as little attention as possible. After ten minutes of not trying to go in a mental shock, he managed to calm himself down, 'so I am in a cartoon show, somehow, so if I got in this world, I can get out, I don't know how, but if there's a way in, there's a way out' he thought 'if i'm going to survive in this new world, I got to priorities', using his knowledge from all the survival games he has played over the years, he immediately knew what to focus on first.

'Okay, I need shelter and food, and to make sure no one knows that I'm homeless, lest I want to get in the awful foster care system', 'Okay, where could I find the most food for free in this city, without having to resort to stealing', he stood there leaning against a brick wall, trying to remember if any of the episodes he watched, any at all, had free, edible food, that he could walk up to, pick up, and just leave without any questions being asked.

Eventually, after a few minutes of searching through his memories of the show, he finally remembered, that in one particular episode, there was a tree that had deliciously, shiny, red apples growing on it, just waiting for someone to grab it, and eat that tasty goodness, Max was just doling at the thought, but he then realized there was one problem with grabbing those apples.

'Ah shit, those apples are right next to Stoop Kid, and from what I remember, I don't think I can convince him to give me any of those apples, so that only leaves me with trying to grab them stealthy'.

As much as he didn't want to, he knew that it was either this, or starve for the night. So with a deep breath, he walked out of the alley, and onto the sidewalk, and with his goal in mind, he started searching around the city for the infamous Stoop Kid.

The streets of Hillwood City changed like night and day, with the street now filled with car speeding going by, various people walking down the streets to get to their jobs, the pigeons chirping on pole lines, and one former 15 year old trying to keep out of people sites.

With the city becoming more active, it was harder, but easier at the same time to stay out of site, as while there were more people that could potentially spot him, but because of his now short body, and the fact that the people seemed more focus on getting where they need to go, rather then the people around them.

The city was much bigger than the show presented, with seamlessly endless roads, buildings on every corner, and giant skyscrapers in the distance. All of this was astonishing Max, as while he has seen cities in media, this was the first time he has ever been in a city himself, it felt so overwhelming but yet outstanding at the same time. But that didn't help his quest, and at this point, he felt like he was going in circles, and since he couldn't ask anyone without awasing supison, he was left to hopelessly wander around the city, hoping that he would stumble into Stoop Kids stoop, with feeling more hopeless by the minute.

But eventually, as he turned around a corner, in the distance, he finally saw those scrumptious apples on their oak tree, and right next to them, the infamous Stoop Kid on his stoop, watching TV.

Max quickly hid around the corner when he spotted him, 'Finally, felt like forever to finally find this guy, now all I gotta do is grab some of them, and get away before he notices me, and if he does, well, all I could hope for then is that he is still afraid of leaving his stoop', and, with determination, and a little bit of fear inside of him, he crouched down on the cold, cement sidewalk, and started to slowly make his way towards his future supper.

Luckily for him, with the street empty in this part of the city, and Stoop Kid distracted watching TV, it was relatively easy to get close to the tree unnoticed, but what wasn't going to be easy, was grabbing the apples without making a sound.

By inch by inch, the tree was only a few meters away, and at this point his stomach started becoming ravonly hungry for food, his desire to just grab as many apples as he can and run off with them becoming more prevelty by the second, but he knew couldn't take any risks, regardless of how much he wanted to.

But his luck ran out when he heard the sound of a devastating, hope wrenching, crack beneath his foot. He barely had enough time to hide behind the tree, "huh, what was that" Stoop Kid yelled out in surprise.

From his hiding spot, Max heard the sound of loud, angry footsteps walking down the stoop, "shit", he cursed under his breath.

With as much bravery as he could muster, Max peeked out from the tree, and saw Stoop Kid looking around the sidewalk, and, realizing this was his chance, carefully plucked each apple as delicately as he could from the tree.

With four, large, juice fresh apples in his arms, Max decided that should be enough for now, 'four apples should last me a couple of days, as long as I ration them, I should be fine for now, still, I wish could take more, but I'm barely keeping the apples I already pick from falling on the ground, so I guess I gotta work with what I have for now', with those thoughts in mind, he started to sneak back to the way he came, all the while barely holding onto the apples, but he, unfortunately, forgot about something.

"THERE YOU ARE", before he could even react, his back and his head smashed against the wall, his vision going blurry as he slid down to the ground, the apples he grabbed rolled away from him. When his vision started to get clearer, he saw a sinister, cruel smile looking down at him, with, pure, hot, rage in Stoop Kid's eyes.

Immediately, he grabbed Max's shirt, pulling him up to his eye level, with Max's legs not even touching the ground.

Max struggled furiously, trying to pry himself free, but Stoop Kid had a strong grip. "What, you think I would let you escape that easily, think again boy, now, tell me why were you trying to take my apples, and I might just go easy on you", Max started struggling even harder, but that soon came to an end when a fist collided into his face. "You thought that hurt, I was just holding back, now tell me why were you trying to steal my apples, were you trying to sell them to some idiot, was that it", he yelled. He tried looking around, hoping that someone was around to help him, but his hopes were dashed, as just him and his aggressor on this street.

With no help in site, Max became more desperate, he started trying to kick furiously, hoping that one of them might hit, but none of them seemed to hit, or if they did, he didn't show it, and like before, this was quickly stopped by another punch in the face. Max quickly found out that he wasn't lying when he said that he was holding back the first time around, as the pain was much more agonizing than the last time.

"Listen kid, if you don't tell me what I want to know, I will pound you so far into the ground, that-", suddenly, Stoop Kid got his answer, when a loud, vicious, growl came out of his victims stomach. Stoop Kids expression suddenly went blank in a blink of an eye, just staring at Max, with Max staring back with confusion and fear on his face.

Without warning, Stoop Kid dropped Max and went back to his stoop. While he certainly was confused, he wasn't going to start complaining, he got himself up, and started dusting himself off. He started to rub his sore, heavily bruised face, which, as far as he could tell, was not going to go away anytime soon.

"Hey, kid, catch", he was barely able to turn around in time to catch it without falling down. In his hands was a simple plastic bag, which had several rips and tears, but that wasn't the thing that caught his intention, what did was what was inside of it, which were four, shiny, red apples.

Max looked up to Stoop Kid with a mix of confusion and shock, "well, what are you waiting for, go, you have no more reason to be here, so scram, unless you want me to beat you up some more", with that threat in mind, he ran away from the stoop as fast as he could, with millions of questions circling in his head.

He didn't know how long he ran for, or even if something saw his two massive bruises on his face, but didn't care, just as long that he got far away from him before he could possibly change his mind. After what felt like an hour of running, he finally stopped to catch his breath, 'well, I guess that could've gone worse, sure, I got the piss beaten out of me, but I got my apples, and honestly I'm not that brave to go back and ask why he gave these to me, all I need now is to find a place to sleep, and then I should be good for the next couple of days'.

With his plastic bag in hand, Max once again began to journey around the city, for a place to sleep before night fall.

As the sun began to softly to move for the moon to take its place in the sky, Max was still searching for a place to sleep, without having to resort to sleeping on a bench. Throughout the hours, it has been getting increasingly harder to avoid people, with the two brushes on his face not helping matters. At this point he began to gain desperate, just to find anything to sleep on that would be somewhat comfortable, but then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted an old mattress, just laying near the sidewalk.

With curiosity lighting up in his eyes, he walked over to the white mattress, and right where it was laying, was medium size baseball field, in the middle of two, rather old buildings.

He began walking around the field, and it felt strangely familiar to him like he had seen this before, but before he could think about that more, he noticed that there was a faint light coming from the back stand against the brick wall.

He slowly made his way to the light and saw that the light was coming under the stand, he went to the side of it, and was able to crawl under it, and there he saw the flickering light of a flashlight. He reached out and grabbed it, and crawled out of the stand, turned it off, and looked at it, 'how the hell did this get under there', he doubted that anyone went here anymore, as, by the looks of it, it seems abandoned, and he doubts that someone just conveniently forgot their flashlight, and besides, since it was still on when he found it, someone has been here recently, and hopefully for him, whoever it was, will never come back, as he just found his new, temporary home.

The moonlight signed down onto Max eating an apple, laying on the newly moved mattress, right up against the left side corner, with his flashlight right next to it. *sigh*, Max threw his apple core somewhere towards the road and laid down on his matt, just looking up at the stars, 'Day one, completed, next objective, get the fuck out of here', he thought, 'isn't it ironic, most people would die to end up in there favorite fictional worlds, if fanfiction is anything to by, and here I am, given the chance of a lifetime, and I'm trying to get out, its funny, how your life can get completely wrecked by something out of your control, oh, did I say funny, I meant to say totally asinine'.

With one last yawn, his eyes slowly closed, with sleep overtaking him.

With a sudden jolt of pain, Max bolted up from his mattress, only to see a certain group of kids, from a certain class, all of them staring at him with various expressions on their faces, with the closest one being rather annoyed. "Uhhh, hi"?

**A/N: So there it is, the first chapter of my first published work, so please, don't hold anything back when criticizing me, so I can improve my craft over time, and also since this is going to be an ongoing project of mine. I can't promise when the next chapter is going to be coming out, but I will try to get it out as soon as I can.**

**I hope you enjoy this series going forward, and may all that read this have a good rest of the night and thank you. **


	2. A Rather Strange Morning

**A/N: Here's Chapter 2, and I hope you all enjoy it.**

When Max woke up this morning, he was expecting a lot of things, but none of them were a bunch of kids staring at him.

"Uhhhh, hi" he said rather nervously, 'of all the places I could have ended up in, why did it have to be Geralds Field'.

Helga, who he assumed kicked him, walked right up to his face, staring him down like a predator staring down their prey, "Hello to you, now if you don't mind me asking, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING SLEEPING IN OUR FIELD", she yelled out with an intense fury, her voice as loud as a lions roar.

Now for most other children, they would be cowering in fear, begging for mercy, pleading for her not to release betsy on them, but Max isn't most children, as he has already been a teenager, and frankly has dealt with much worse than a girl with a violent streak.

"Okay, first of all, can you take a few steps back, since there is a thing called personal boundaries, and I would like not to have your saliva all over my face thank you very much, and second of all, your field, now correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure this is public property, so I can sleep here if I want to", 'I think', he added in his head.

Helga took a step closer to Max, "And what if I don't", Max took a step back, "excuse me", he asked. "I said, what if I don't want to step back", she took another step closer to Max, and he could see the eyes of the devil looking back at him.

He tried to take another step back but quickly realized that his back was up against the wall, figuratively and literally. At this point he didn't know what to do, he can't run away with Helga so close, he could try to maybe push her back and try to squeeze out, but he doubts he could run fast enough to escape betsy wrath, and while he is honestly not afraid her, he really doesn't want more bruises on him.

But luckily his answer of what to do finally came, when a certain football headed kid walked up to them. He actually forgot that the other kids were there, and now is starting to question why they didn't do something earlier, but he decided it was best to let that go for now.

"Helga, just lay off of him alright", Helga looked back at her secret crush, then looked at back at Max, then back at Arnold.

"Fine, I will leave him alone for now, but not because of you Arnold, he isn't worth betsy's time anyway, well, move it football head", she pushed Arnold out of the way, and walked back to the other kids, who were all quietly talking themselves, sneaking glances at him when he was literally stuck between a boulder and a hard place, but quickly stopped when they notched that Helga was walking towards them.

Arnold turned back to him with a sympathetic look on his face, "sorry about that, Helga can be a bit hot-headed at times". While Max appreciated the sentiment, he was more focus on Arnold's weirdly shaped head, rather than his words.

While Arnold doesn't nearly look as terrifying as Vasquez depiction of him in 3D does, he won't deny that it is a little bit uncanny valley for him, and that also kind of goes to the other people he has meat so far as well. Seeing all these cartoon characters up close, they look exactly like their animated selves, but in live action. If he never saw the cartoon show before, he honestly doubts he would get this strong vibe of the uncanny valley from them, but he honestly couldn't help it, Spellacy from Arnold with his football head.

But his train of thought was cut short by the sounds of light snapping, coming from Arnold, who had a somewhat sad look on his face. "S-sorry", he stammered out, "I didn't mean to stare at your, um", but Arnold interrupted him before he could finish, "it's fine, I'm more than used to those sort of reactions nowadays".

While he tried to be reassuring, Max could clearly see that Arnold was bothered by it, which made Max feel like total, Spellacy considering how he has given people dressing-downs in the past for the same kind of thing that he just did.

"So if you don't mind me asking, I don't want to push you or anything, but why are you sleeping outside, don't you have a home you can go to", he asked rather calmly.

Which didn't help Maxwell at all, 'shitshitshit, what do I tell him, I can't say that I'm homeless, as I bet he would go to his grandparents or ask someone for advice, maybe I could try to tell him I like sleeping outside, but then that leaves me with the issue of him asking about my parents, which I will not know what to say about that, and that's not going into the fact that the students are still watching us, so I will also have to convince them not to tell their parents about me either'

Several ideas were speeding through his mind all at once, trying to find one that was hopefully not going to blow up in his face, but each one that he thought of, was quickly dashed as they were either going to most likely make this situation even worse, or are just plain stupid, but knowing that time was ticking, he decide just to use the next plan that came to him

"Yes, I do mind, and frankly I don't want to talk about it, all I'm going to say is that I prefer sleeping outside, and the rest of the story isn't your business, so please don't ask me ever again as long as I live.''

He made a point of saying it rather rudely, and after a few moments of saying that, he really wanted to slap himself, 'really Max, that was the plan you went with', well there was no turning back now, so all he could do was hope for the best, not notching that Helga was viciously growling at him.

"Okay, okay, I understand, so since your here, if you want, we could use another player in our game", but before Maxwell could even respond, Harold was already stomping towards them. "We already have enough players, and we don't need someone who probably can't even catch a ball", 'well he's not wrong there', Harold was looking down at Max with scorn, "For one", Max spoke up, "I was going to decline Arnold offer anyway, and two, you do need another person."

Max said with utmost confidence, with Harold, by the look on his face, was very embarrassed, but that's not going to stop him from trying to save face. "I knew that, I just, um, ah, just wanted to make sure that you knew that, even if you wanted to join, you couldn't, and what do you mean we don't have enough players, we got pitchers, throwers, and, uh,'' Harold started to scratch under his chin, thinking very intensely, '' oh, and we got all the other roles covered as well, so tell me why we need another player, huh mattress sleeper."

He ignored the rather poor insult, "well who's keeping score than", he said rather calmly, "what", Harold said in asked in confusion, "I said who's keeping score", "well Sid is", he pointed towards, who noticed and smiled. "Oh, so then why does he have a bat with them", "what, are you stupid, he's going to be the first one up", "but you just said he's going to be keeping score", "he can keep score and play."

"Yeah he could, but there's a lot of problems of that", Harold looked at me with anger, "what do mean problems, there are no problems that I see", "well maybe you can't see any problems, but luckily for you, I can, for starters, isn't there a risk of him forgetting the score, while I don't play baseball, I do know that it takes a lot of focus, focus that can't be used on keeping track, so you guys would have to pretty much start all over, second, what if Sid teams starts losing, and he conveniently forgets to add points to the winning team, and accidentally give his team those points."

"Hey, Sid isn't a cheater", with his bat behind his back, Sid walked up to the three, "yeah, I'm no cheater, I have never cheated in my entire life on anything."

Max raised his eyebrow, "oh really, so your telling me that, if you are given a chance, you wouldn't just secretly add a point or two to your team, since you are the only one keeping track of the score, no one would notice, and your telling me that you had never even thought of doing that, not even once."

Sid started scratching the back of his, turning away from them, while having a sleeping smile on his face, "well, I guess when you put it that way,'' he said rather embarrassingly.

"Aw come on Sid", Harold looked down in defeat, finally Arnold stepped in, "well, uh, sorry, I completely forgot to ask, but what's your name", "Maxwell, or just Max for short, and don't feel bad, I kinda forgot to ask what your names are as well", 'because I already know them' he added in his head.

"Well it's nice to meet you Max, im Arnold, this is Harold, Sid, over there is my best friend Gerald", he looked, and saw him waving and smiling at him, "you already met Helga, to her right is Phoebe, then there's Sheela, Stinky, Eugene, Curly, Nadida, and Rhonda", each of them ether smiled or wave, or sometimes both, when their respective names were called out, naturally I waved back to them.

"So back to what I was saying, maybe you could keep track of the score for our game", and once again, before he could even respond, Harold interrupted him, "WHAT, no way are we going to let in somebody that we just met keep track of the score", "true, but isn't that a good thing, since you guys barely know me, and I barely know you, you don't have to worry about me having any sort of bias while keeping score", he said.

"But what do get out of all this, as I bet just sitting and counting isn't fun unless you're some sort of weirdo, so is that it, are you just a weird weirdo", he said rather immaturely.

"Well that's not the only thing I will be doing if you have a notebook and a pencil I could borrow that is", "oh, oh, I have one", Sheena ran up to Max, with a big, goofy smile on her face. She excitedly handed to him her pink notebook, and a shiny yellow pencil, "you can borrow it for today, I don't really use it that much anyway, just give it back to me by the end of the", and with that, she ran back to the other kids, who were setting up for the game.

With the newly acquired notebook and pencil in hand, he turned back to Harold, "with these, I can keep track of the score better, and I will be able to draw stuff in it while watching the, if that's okay with you Sheena", Sheena looked at him, and gave him the thumbs up on that, "So, if you excuse me, I'm going to be sitting on the stand, gotta be ready for when your game starts, which seems to be soon, so you better hurry, would be embarrassing if you be late", and with those words, all three of them ran off to get ready for their game, and with a smirk, Max went sat down on the top of the stands, opened the book and started writing in it.

The game had begun, with balls flying in the air, people running as fast as they could to the next plate, all of them with pure determination in their eyes to win, and like all other sports games, bored Max to death. To this day he couldn't understand why sweating purosley, getting tackled to the ground, and getting blamed for losing the match, even when it was clearly not your fault, was considered to be fun in any way, the only sports that were actually fun were Esports.

But watching a bunch people play a sport, and keep score, was not the reason why he was doing this, as it just gave him an excuse to write down the few ideas he had to escape and return home.

'Hmmm, maybe Four-Eyed Jack had a machine that could transport people to different worlds, he was pretty much a mad scientist, so maybe he had something like that, oh who am I kidding, of course, he wouldn't', and with that another idea down the drain and another idea scribbled out in Sheena's notebook.

So far, Arnold's team had four points, with Harolds team only having a measly one point, if he was actually invested in the sport, he might have been excited that Arnold was going to win, but alas, he really didn't care, and probably never will.

After what felt like several hours of writing down several ideas, and then invebilal scribbling them out, Arnold and the gang decided to take a small break, most of them had water bottles or snacks, or just decided to talk to each other, mostly he just continued to do what he was doing, not really hungry to grab one of his apples, or really motivated to talk to anyone, unfortunately for him, fate has seemed to like messing with him recently, as not a minute later, Rhonda and Nadine walked past him, and sat down right next to him.

He just decided to ignore them, if they don't talk to him, he won't talk to them either, all he had to do, was just ignore their conversation and he should be fine.

Unfortunately, the Princess turned her attention to Max, or more specifically, what he was wearing, "how can you wear such an awful outfit in broad daylight", Max automatically stopped writing, put the notebook and the pencil down, and look right back at the fashionista, "excuse me, what did you just say."

"I said that your look is just awful, honestly, how could you ever think that two entirely different shades of blue, along with a simple undershirt would ever look good, even I couldn't make that look good, and if can't make it look good, no one can'' she said with an air of smugness in her voice

In Max's eyes, Rhonda was always a hypocrite, she always talks about how important fashion is, but in ninety-nine percent of episodes she's in, she always wears the same thing, now he does know the reason for this, because changing her outfit for each episode, would just take too much time and money, that in the grand scheme of things, was not that big of a deal, so he does understand the meta reason, but in the show it was never explained, just making her look a massive hypocrite in the show, and the only thing different here, was that she was wearing a golden necklace, with a strange, red jewel in the center of it.

"Well, all that matters to me is whether or not I think it looks good on me, which I think it does, honestly, when it comes to what I'm wearing, I really couldn't care what other people think of me in that regard, as long as I like it, that's the only thing that matters to me", Rhonda now had a disgusted look on her face.

"Fine then, if you want to look like the disgusting pig you are, you can, just don't get your muddy hands all over me, lets go Nadine, I don't want to be around this pig any longer", and with that, the snobby Princess stood up, and walked away, with Nadine right behind her, but before she did, she gave Max a sympathetic smile, and joined with her Queen, leaving him all along, with only his thoughts keeping him company, he grabbed the notebook and pencil, and continued writing ideas down, and scribbling out others.

The game resumed, and Max was as interested as a cat inserted in anything but sleep and food, so not interested at all. But what did catch his interest, was in the corner of his eye, he saw a strange, creepy tall man, in big white robes with strange purple marking all over the robes, with a hood hiding his face, looking like he was part of a cult, and seemed strangely invested in this ball game, which like any normal person, caused several red flags to appear all at once.

But before he could go down there and demand him to get the hell out of here, he spoke, "Ah, children, sweet sweet children, so bright with joy, fun, and ignorant, don't know what the world is, until it's too late", he had a very calm, high pitched voice, his voice sounding like a caring grandma, but his appearance certainly didn't match the voice.

All of them turned and saw the cultist, even though his hood covering his face, they all knew he was staring at them. Arnold, the bold kid he was, walked up to the strange man, "hello sir, I don't think I have seen you around here, my name is Arnold Shortman, and what's your", Arnold held up his hand, waiting for the man to shake, but he didn't, instead he patted Arnold's head like a dog, somehow making him, even more, creepier than he already was.

"Ah, what a polite child, my name is Alazare, but you can just call me Al my precious child, but I'm afraid that I'm not here to talk to well-spoken like you, as I here to retrieve a very special jewel, which is very important to my church" Arnold looked at him questionably, "church, so are you like, a pastor or something", this Al, started laughing softly, "I guess you could call it that", he walked past Arnold, and he looked across the field, his eyes scanning for this precious jewel of his, until his finally centered on Rhonda's necklace, or to be more specific, the jewel in it.

He walked over to her, his feet not making any sound as walked on the well kept green grass, and while it was just probably his imagining, for a brief moment, he thought he was floating.

His eyes met Rhonda, "hello my sweet child, it seems you have something that belongs to my church in your possession", he said rather politely, which didn't stop Rhonda from crossing her arms, and looking at him like he has offended her in some way, "sorry, but my Dad bought this for me as a present for getting top score on a math test, so even if this precious necklace was yours, its mine now,'' she said rather mockingly, which didn't stop the creepy man from being rather polite to her, "I must correct you child, I don't the necklace, I want the jewel inside of it, you can keep the necklace yourself", he said once again in a very calm and polite tone.

"If this pretty jewel was actually yours, then how did my Dad bought", she said with a clear tone of arrogance in her voice, "unfortunately, our place of enlightenment, was broken into by a thief, and stole it, and the thief was already gone by the time we got back, we searched high and low, to see where this thief went and get back what is ours, but it seems he had sold it to someone, someone that I hope didn't know what kind of man he was talking to and tracked down to you, so please, my child, do the right thing, and return it to its rightful owner, and if it helps, I would be more than glad to buy it off of you, just name the price", Max had to give him credit, even if was creepy man, who basically said that he is some sort cultist, he was certainly pretty polite and generous.

But once again, Rhonda just scoffed at the man, "well I'm sorry sir, but this is mine now, not yours, mine, and I would never give away this beautiful gem to a creep like you,'' she said with a huff. Al sighed, "I didn't want to do this child, but you leave me with no other options,'' suddenly, Alazor kicked Rhonda to the ground, and swiftly grabbed the necklace, "I'm a sorry child, truly I am, but this much more important than your comfort.

"DON'T YOUR DARE HURT MY RHONDA AGAIN YOU MONSTER", Curly, in a moment of bravery, rushed towards him, with foam coming out of his mouth, ready to pounce him and maul him. But Curly went down with a shirt punch in the face, knocking him out cold, "CURLY", Arnold rushed towards Curly, making him sure he was okay, and luckily for him, other than a few bruises, he should be fine.

Helga, Phoebe, Sid, and Gerald ran towards Arnold, while Harold was on the floor, crying on the ground, begging for mommy, all the while, Max was watching all of this, unsure if he should step in or not, as he was wasn't from any of the episodes he saw. This was looking bad other than the ones surrounding Arnold, the rest of them were handled in the corner, shaking in fear, while Nadine helped Rhonda get up.

Suddenly, Alazar turned his attention to Max, "ah, it seems the traveler has arrived earlier than expected, how particular", when he heard those words, he immediately stood up, "wait, how do you know me", with the necklace in his hand, he started to run.

"Hey, come back here", Arnold, Gerald, Helga, and Sid chased after him, with Rhonda right behind them, Max got off the stand as quickly as possible, grab his flashlight to use as a weapon just in case, and ran off to chase the man, and find out what he knew about him and his predicament.

He couldn't care less about Rhonda's necklace and whether or not she gets its back, only caring about the information he holds. He was starting to catch up with the others, as they twist and turn around corners, go through several alleys, all the while never seeing any cars, which he would've question, but was too busy at the moment to really think about it.

He started to wheeze and puff, his face starting to go red, his legs getting weaker by the second, he always did hate his lack of stamina, all he could hope now was that this case would end soon, which luckily it did, when he turned in an alley, and almost crashed into the others.

By crashing into the concrete floor, which didn't crack his head open, but did cause him a nosebleed. Arnold, being the good kid he was, helped Max up, "are you okay Max", he asked in concern, "I'm alright, I've been through worse, just having a small nose bleed right now, but enough about me, where did he go", Arnold pointed to rather large, open manhole cover.

All of them went close to it and looked down into the dark hole, "there's no way I'm going in the disgusting sewer, and get all my clothes in the disgusting water, absolutely not", Max looked at her with a mischievous smirk, "but Rhonda, I thought the necklace meant the whole world to you, you were so adamant to not give it to the weird man, even though he offered to buy it off of you for a good price, but going in the sewer is just to much for you", he said rather mockingly, causing Rhonda to scowl at him, not notching three men in similar robes walked behind them.

"How dare you mock me, if you don't know, I'm a proud Lloyd, which you probably don't even know who we are, since you just a disgusting pig. Max looked Rhonda in the eyes, a scowl also appearing on his face, "well at the very least I'm not a stuck up snob like you."

But before in all fight could start between them, a certain voice came from behind them, "I'm truly sorry my children, but this is for your own good", before any of them could even react, they were falling down into the darkness, and like all things, the darkness had an end.

Max landed into the murky water of the sewer, which lucky somewhat cushion his fall, just like how his body also cushion fall of the others when they eventually landed.

He could barely see, with the only light source being the sun shining down on them, he tried to move, but the various bodies and the rather hard fall even with the water somewhat cushioning his fall, but with the last of his energy, he looked up and saw three men in robes, and as he was about to go to sleep for a little while, he saw the moon covering the sun, until there was nothing, but darkness.

**A/N: And we are done with the chapter, I hope you all enjoyed, and special thanks to my two reviews, Spellacy to the one who pointed out my, not so perfect grammar in the last, I will be sure to go over my spelling in the upcoming future.**

**But who was that strange man, what does he want with the jewel, how does he know that Max came from another world, and will they be able to escape from the sewers in one piece, find out next time in chapter three, The Legend of the Lizard, and thank you all for reading, and you all have a good night.**


	3. The Legend of the Gecko

**A/N: Here's Chapter 3, and I hope you all enjoy it.**

Max's eyes slowly fluttered open, all around was pure darkness, with only the outline of the rest of the kids confirming that his eyes were wide open.

His clothes were soaked, with dirty mucky sewage water, he would've probably pucked, knowing that his body was covered in this water. He struggled to get up, he knees were hurting pretty badly from the fall, he doesn't think that he broke any of his bones, but everything is going to be hurting for a while that's for sure.

He started trying to look for his flashlight that he lucky brought with him, as he would not want to try to maneuver around this place without some sort of light. His hand was sweeping in the dark water, trying to feel anything that he could grab, with him barely holding in his vomit.

His fingers eventually touched something that felt like aluminum, he grabbed it, and lifted up, and pressed down on what felt like a button, and he could finally see in these dark, concrete tunnels. The sewerage was quiet with the only being little droplets of water falling from the ceiling, he turned around and saw the other kids were still knocked out from the fall, he immediately rushed over to them, with the water splashing beneath his feet, to make sure none of them were face first in the water. Luckily, none of them were drowning, which finally let Max sigh in relief, 'none them are at risk of dying, oh thank god none them landed on there face, I don't know if I would have woken up in time to save them, hopefully, I can just shake them a little bit to wake them, and I don't think I can carry any of them to the top without falling down again.'

He decided to try to wake up Arnold first, he went near his unconscious body, and gently shook him, and he seemed to stir a little bit, and Max shook him harder, which woke him up. "Where are we", he quietly said, still half asleep, "we are in a lovely field of grass, with blooming flowers everywhere, and the great big sun in the sky", "really" he questioned, and Max looked down on him with disbelief, "no, we are in a dark, damp sewer, so do you want me to help you up or not", Arnold raised his hand out, and he grabbed it and lifted him up on his own two feet.

"Owwww, what happened", Arnold questioned, he also started rubbing his head, which now had a very big bruise on it. "Well, this weird cultist looking guy stole Rhonda's necklace, me, you, Gerald, Helga, Sid, and the Princess herself chased after him, and then he pushed us in a manhole, and now we are in a disgusting sewer", Arnold's eyes widen in realization, "the others, where are the others", he said in distress. He shined his flashlight to the ones who were unconscious.

Arnold immediately went to his best friend Gerald, checking to see if he was okay, he sighed a breath of relief when he found out he was just unconscious, not anything worse. He turned back to Max, who was just ideally watching, "help me get them all up", he shouted at him, which he went to work on right away. The next person that got was Gerald, we also went to wake up the others, when Arnold told him about the situation they were in, the next one that got up was Helga, which Arnold barely avoided a punch from her when he woke her up, the second to last one was Sid, who took a little more effort to wake up, but Max knew just how to wake him. By splashing water on him, sure, he mighty got an angry glare from Sid for that, but in his defense, it did work.

With Sid and the rest of them up, there was the only one left that had yet to have woken, the snob herself, Rhonda. Like with Sid, Max walked over to her and slightly nudged her, "come on sleeping beauty, it's time to wake up", unsurprisingly, she didn't wake, which he was hoping for, "alright, you asked for it", and with one swift kick from his shoe, the water went on the Princesses face, and in a blink of an eye, Rhonda was on her feet, desperately trying to get the water off of her face.

"What is this?" she asked, as she continued trying to get the oh so pleasant water off her face. "Oh, just some nice sewage water, I really think it suits your completion", he said, barely holding in his laughter, Spellacy when he saw her face, which looked like she just met death himself, and out of the corner of the eye, he saw two things, Arnold giving a disproving glare, and Helga laughing like a hyena, with Sid and Gerald chuckling.

But there chuckling was quickly silenced, by what can only be described as a death glare from the sewage covered Princess, and then gave that same glare to me, which he totally deserved, he knew that, but it was still worth it. "Ewewewew, this so disgusting, all my clean nice clothes, are now covered in literally garbage, do you know how much time I spend on my hair, like at least an hour, all ruined because of you", she yelled at me, pointing her now rather dirty finger at me.

Max put his hands up in defense "hey, I'm not the reason we are in this mess in the first place, maybe if you just gave that Al guy the gem, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place,'' he yelled right back at her.

"And give that guy my necklace, that my Dad bought with his own money, no thanks, and he has proven to be violent already, so I think I made the right choice,'', she said smugly.

Before Max could argue with her more, the peacekeeper himself walked between them, "we can argue later, how about we just focus on getting out of here, for now, ok", he asked with a kind tone.

"Your right, let's just get out of here, I don't want to stay here any longer then I have to", Max replied, Rhonda pouted, "fine, the quicker I can get away from him and out of here the better", and with that, she walked towards the other kids, along with Max and Arnold.

"So, how are we going to get out of here", Gerald ask, "What, are you a moron, we just climb back out of the manhole we fell from", Helga said with a temper.

Helga walked away from the group and climbed up the ladder leading the lid of the manhole, with Max shining his light on it, just to make sure Helga can see it better.

When she got to the top, she tried pushing it up, but it didn't budge, she tried again, but much harder, with sweat starting to pour off of her as kept pushing harder and harder, but with no avail, something that the rest took notice of, "um, Helga, are you okay, your face is looking very red", and Gerald was not wrong, as her face was cherry red, as she continued to struggle to open the lid, until eventually, she decided, no matter what she did, this thing is not opening any time soon.

She climbed down and walked towards the rest of the group, "well, it seems we are stuck down here,'' she said bluntly, "w-what do mean", Sid stammered out in fear, which Helga just rolled her eyes at, "didn't you hear me nutjob, I said we are stuck down here, as the lid won't open", she said once again in annoyance, "nonononononono", Sid rushed to the ladder, climbed up it, and started smashing on the lid, '' Help, help, we're stuck down here, help", he kept yelling, screaming for help.

He kept doing this for several minutes, until Helga finally had enough, "QUIET, IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP, YOU WILL NEVER LEAVE THIS PLACE ALIVE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND", she shouted as loud as she could.

Almost immediately after Helga yelled out the command, Sid quickly got off the ladder, more scared of Helga than anything else. "Why did freak out so much, you do know there are other ways out of here, we just got to go a little deeper into the sewer", Max tried to say rensuanly, while he definitely didn't want to go any deeper, they weren't really any danger yet, and besides, an exit shouldn't be too far away, so he didn't get the big deal.

"A little deeper, do you know what's in these tunnels", he said, fear shaking out his voice, Max just raised an eyebrow, "what is in these tunnels", he asked curiously. "The horrifying, monstrous, maneater, The Tree Gecko", Gerald gasp, Arnold and Rhonda looked at him in confusion, Helga facepalmed, and Max was just dumbfounded.

"Whats the Tree Gecko", Arnold asked, innocently enough, but Sid and Gerald wiped their heads around at Arnold, surprise all over her face, "you mean you haven't heard of him", "I haven't either actually", Max added. Sid and Gerald turned to each other, and then turned back "well then we should tell you a story, a story that has been passed from kid generation to kid generation."

Gerald starting clearing his voice, "there was a boy named Waylon, he was relatively normal kid, but he had a fantasization for reptiles, one day after school, his mom gave him a pet Gecko, he named him Tree, he would spend all day playing with his new pet, he would take him anywhere he went, to school, to the park. Anywhere you could imagine, everything was going fine for the duo, until on one fateful night, when Waylon forgot to put water in the cage of his pet. Thirsty, he sneaked out of his cage in search of water, and unfortunately, the first place he went to, was the bathroom, remembering the big swirl of water in the toilet. The little lizard got into the bathroom, and climbed up the toilet, and looked down and saw the water, almost immediately he drinking from the toilet, enjoying every second of it, not having a care in the world, until Waylon's Mother came in, and turned on the lights. "Spider", she screamed, thinking that he was an insect, and before Tree could turn around, he was already being flushed down the toilet. Life in the sewer for Tree was difficult, getting food was a constant challenge for him, being used to having all of his food given didn't help either, trying to find clean water was also a problem that he had to deal with, sometimes it would take days to find somewhat clean water, but through all of this, he only had one goal, get back to his best friend Waylon, so he continued pushing through the days, getting bigger and stronger each and every day, all because of his loyalty to his friend. But over time, his obsession to gain more power and grow bigger started to get worse, eating larger things to get stronger, and his desire to go home all but evaporated at this point, eventually his ever growing hunger desired a much bigger target, humans, no one knows how many people he has consumed, some people say that he is so big, that he can eat someone whole with a single bite, so unless you wanna get eaten, you never ever go down the sewer, as he knows when prey enter his hunting ground."

With the story finished, Gerald took a bow with Sid clapping for his performance. Arnold and Rhonda were pale, as fear took hold of them "I-I don't want to be a monsters snack", Rhonda cried out, "y-yeah, I agree with that, we need to get out of here as soon as possible", Helga just rolled her eyes at the whole thing. "Criminy, you really believe this stuff, please, there are no such things as monsters, so unless you're five years old and still believe monsters are coming out of your bed, you shouldn't be afraid of this stuff unless your a bunch of babies", while Helga was mocking them, Max actually wanted to agree with Helga on this, but considering he used to think getting transported to another world was all fiction and stuff… well regardless of whether or not there is a giant man-eating lizard in the sewer, they need to get out of here.

"How about we just focus on getting out of here, besides, we don't really have a choice in the matter, so unless you guys want to stay here, we will need to go deeper", and with that, Max started walking deeper into the tunnels, "hey, wait for us", Sid yelled out.

With all of the kids behind him, some were quivering in fear, some were just annoyed with everything, but regardless of their emotions, they all had one goal in mind, get out of the sewers, so they all walked into the great unknown in search for an exit, all of them unaware of the yellow eyes watching them.

**A/N: Sorry for the much shorter chapter than the previous two, originally I was planning for this to be much longer, but I felt this was a good stopping point for chapter three. I do promise that the next one will be much longer than this one, I do hope that I came up with a good urban legend, this was my first time writing one, and I did try to keep in line with the other legends in the series, so I hope did well. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this, and I hope to see in the next chapter, In The Hunters Domain, and I hope you all have a good night, and take care.**


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